Village, ward secretariat staff scuffle with police during Chalo Vijayawada protest

A tense scuffle broke out in Vijayawada between village and ward secretariat employees and police during the "Chalo Vijayawada" protest over long-pending demands. Police resorted to cane charge, leaving several injured, while a Circle Inspector tragically died of cardiac arrest on duty.

Vijayawada: A scuffle broke out on Sunday between the employees of village and ward secretariats and the police during the protest by the employees over their long-pending demands.

A tense situation prevailed as a large number of employees, including women, gathered at Dharna Chowk in response to ‘Chalo Vijayawada’ protest called to press for their demands.

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They raised slogans, demanding the Andhra Pradesh government to give them promotion and address other pending demands.

Police tried to detain the protesters and physically lifted some of them to the police vehicles. 

As protesters resisted the arrest, this led to a scuffle between the two sides.

Police resorted to cane charge to control the situation. 

Several protesters and police personnel received injuries in the clash.

Employees were furious over what they called the Telugu Desam Party (TDP)-led coalition government’s repressive actions against those who raised their voices for their legitimate demands.

In a tragic incident during the protest, a police officer died of cardiac arrest. 

Circle Inspector Ahmed Ali suffered cardiac arrest while performing his duties at Dhanra Chowk. He collapsed on the ground. 

Other police personnel rushed him to a nearby hospital but he succumbed on the way.

Meanwhile, YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) condemned the cane charge on the village and ward secretariat employees who were protesting for their just demands.

YSRCP MLC Lella Appi Reddy alleged that the TDP-led coalition government has gone back on its poll promises and has been using police against the protesting employees.

“They were fighting for their just demands and the police had shown high-handedness in preventing the leaders and active participants of the village and ward secretariat and behaved in a harsh manner at the Dharna Chowk where they were protesting,” he said.

Appi Reddy added that many leaders were prevented from coming to the venue and those who made it to the venue were beaten up by the police. 

“At least 141 persons were detained and the state government is not prepared to even negotiate with them. While Chief Minister (N. Chandrababu Naidu) and his son (Nara Lokesh) were away; not a single Minister took responsibility to sort out their problem and leave them at the mercy law enforcing authorities.”

“They were protesting seeking the promotions and increments which were just demands as CM Chandrababu Naidu had promised to double the employees’ pay on assuming office but he failed to keep up the promise,” Appi Reddy said.

“The TDP-led coalition government has been sponsoring protests as it happened at the SAAP office when it suits the political interests and when there was a real protest seeking the just demands they were roughed up and such actions in a democracy would not go well,” he added.

YSRCP SC Cell State President and former MLA T.J.R. Sudhakar Babu strongly condemned the crackdown on village and ward secretariat employees.

He demanded the unconditional release of all detained employees. 

He criticised the police for resorting to cane charge, dragging employees onto roads and detaining women in police stations.

Sudhakar Babu said the employees’ demands, including promotions and two pending increments, were reasonable. 

“Instead of resolving them through talks, the state government was subjecting them to harassment, excessive workload and denial of holidays.”

He alleged that the state government had weakened the Secretariat system introduced by former Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to realise Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of Gram Swaraj.

“The system had delivered 540 government services at people’s doorsteps. Employees who risked their lives as frontline workers during the Covid-19 pandemic were now being humiliated,” he said.

He criticised the decision to reorganise 15,004 secretariats into 7,715 groups and alleged that the state government was planning to remove nearly 30,000 employees.